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Short game but fun to play while it lasts

Having received Army of Two: The 40th Day in the post this Saturday you can perhaps forgive my slight disappointment of having completed it twice already by the end of Sunday. While I am not a fan of a game that drags out way beyond its time of being fun, I would have like to have experienced a bit more from this title than the four to five hours of game play I experience each play through.

The game itself is well made. It starts after the events of the first Army of Two with the two soldiers Rios and Salem now working for themselves. Having arrived in Shanghai, China, the pair soon find themselves in the middle of what appears to be World War Three, as China begins to crumble following an unprovoked attack. Their one aim now is to survive and escape Shanghai.

Visually this game is a marked improvement on the first. The graphics are more crisp and cleaner to look at, while the sounds is fitting to the scenario. There is perhaps a lack of different areas to explore compared with that of the first game due to the whole game being set in Shanghai, but visually you cannot fault what you see. I did however get the feeling in some locations that I was playing a 'Gears of War' game (not a problem as I love these games) but felt that some locations (e.g. hospital) were very similar.

The story is simple. You need to escape Shanghai, and kill most things in your way. It's pretty much what you would expect from this type of game. There is no easy introduction into this game either. After the first five minutes you are suddenly thrown into all out warfare and must fight to survive.

One aspect that I was not so keen on, however, was the way the game makes you buy new weaponry and parts. You can at any stage of the game go to the shop screen and purchase new items. Sounds good but; when you do this it you have to buy each individual part separately and then checkout. This process can be long winded and take a bit of time, especially if you have a lot of money to spend. Why they couldn't have allowed you to fill a cart and then buy it all in one go I don't know.

Now going full circle, I do still feel that although this game has replay value with the different difficulties (Casual, Medium (that might not be what its called I cannot remember) and Contractor) it could have done with being a few levels longer. In this I am not including the extra two missions you can buy online (Xbox Live) as I like my games to come complete in the first place and not make me spend more money to 'top it up.'

All in all however the game is a decent blast while it lasts and is worth a punt, but if your after something a bit more substantial then try Gears of War 2. Now that's a game...